Does Karo have his shit together?

Karo Parisyan has had a pretty shitty two years – he went from being a top contender in a stacked welterweight division to unimpressive headcase in the span of a few fights. This weekend he’s taking on Dustin Hazelett, and I have no doubt that if Karo isn’t the Karo of old he’s gonna have a short night and a sore arm from McLovin’ twisting it out of shape.

From the looks of this UFC.com article, it at least sounds like Karo is training properly. But what about his health and his head? He’s just gotten off a 9 month suspension for three different types of painkillers, and then there’s his well known anxiety issues which have sucked away a lot of the Armenian aggression that made him such a kickass fighter. Here’s all he had to say about that:

“I’m not making any excuses for my last few fights, but anxiety played a huge role in me not being properly prepared. Anxiety takes over your life. I have it under control now, but imagine having anxiety all night and not being able to sleep because you’re worrying about every little thing. How are you going to be able to train and fight when you’re dealing with something like that? When I’m not in shape mentally and physically, I see submissions that are there for the taking but I don’t finish because I’m over-thinking things. In my mind I’m telling myself ‘You have to pace yourself; if you waste your energy on trying to submit him now, you aren’t going to be able to finish strong in the fight if he escapes’. I used to not care about getting hit or the power of the guys I was fighting when I used to fight against strikers; I’d just go in there and try to kill them. That’s the style I need to go back to. I need to stop thinking so much and just do what I know I can do and I need to try to finish the guy I’m fighting. I need to bring back “The Heat”.

I don’t think Karo is gonna win. But I’m at least hoping he manages to put on a good performance before getting taken out.